Course Description

ENGL3306 Shakespeare: The Major Works

Prof. Jamie Ferguson, spring 2013

“He was not of an age, but for all time!” (Ben Jonson, 1623)

“Every age creates its own Shakespeare.” (Marjorie Garber,
2004)

This is an introduction to the dramatic works of William
Shakespeare, through reading of six of the major plays: I Henry IV, Hamlet, Measure for Measure, King
Lear, Macbeth, and The
Tempest. We shall approach these plays as examples of Shakespeare’s work in
four genres: tragedy, comedy, history, and romance; we shall also follow
Shakespeare’s thematic concerns and artistic development across these generic
boundaries. We shall use various critical categories to discuss and write about
the plays: source-study, character-study, imagery and symbolism, aesthetics, performance
and textual history. While most of our attention will go to close reading of
our six texts, we shall also study these plays in their social, political, and
religious contexts and review some of the relevant criticism associated with
each play.